Sp e cia l Issu e : F lo o d Dr ill in Ilig an City
I SSUE NO.2 | 2 0 1 4
Iligan City holds drill to test preparedness
aspects of the activity. Orientations for each of the
barangay
involved were also given, especially, that the
exercise will happen simultaneously.
During the drill, ICDRRMC followed different
scenarios and implemented their contingency
plan in establishing an early warning system such
as monitoring water level and issuing warnings,
testing the effectiveness of the communication
protocol meant to coordinate the different task
units and agencies, transferring affected people,
and securing the affected population in designated
safe evacuation centers.
T
wo weeks after the low-pressure-area-turned-tropicaldepression-Agaton flooded significant parts of Northern
Mindanao, Iligan city went into high gear in its preparation
for emergencies and disasters through the conduct of a
simultaneous early warning, communication, and evacuation
flood drill. The drill was spearheaded by the Iligan City
Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (ICDRRMC),
which is headed by Mayor Regencia, and supported by the
Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO)
and other members from the city departments, national
governments agencies (i.e. DepEd, DILG, the military, etc.),
and nongovernment institutions. The activity was also assisted
by the Office of Civil Defense Regional Office 10, the Climate
Change Commission (CCC), the implementing office of Project
Climate Twin Phoenix, the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), and the Australian Government.
Participating in the drill are four barangays—Hinaplanon,
Tambacan, San Roque and Mahayahay, which were identified
as high-risk communities due to its terrain or location. Fourhundred families or roughly 1,200 residents per barangay were
mobilized to take part in the half-day activity.
According to DRRMO Chief, Lamberto Macapagal, “The number
of people we have mobilized for this activity was astounding,
which reached to more than a thousand. It showed the
heightened level of awareness of our communities for the need
to prepare themselves and their families during a disaster.”
Director Ana Cañeda of the Office of Civil Defense-Region X, and
Dr. Cedric Daep, Head of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency
Management Office, assisted the ICDRRMC in the conduct of
the drill. The entire exercise took roughly four hours in the four
barangays, simultaneously.
According to Cañeda, “key to the successful and smooth conduct
of this exercise are the committed members of the ICDRRM
clusters as well as the local leaders who participated actively
since the beginning of the project, from the formulation of their
own contingency plan to testing it through this drill.”
The aim of the drill is to test the operability and usefulness of
Iligan’s flood contingency plan, particularly the city’s integrated
early warning system, communication protocols and evacuation
procedures while familiarizing the LGU offices and regional
agencies concerned with disaster-related operations based on
“After Tropical Storm Sendong almost washed out parts of the the cluster coordination.
(Iligan) city in 2011, there is no question in our minds that the
next step, really, is to empower our communities so they would “We started by producing climate-adjusted maps of floodknow how to prepare for or secure their families and livelihood prone areas from the modeling of Iligan and Mandulog rivers,
before, during and after a disaster,” says Iligan City Mayor Celso and the watershed that drain into these rivers,” says CCC Vice
Regencia.
Chairperson, Secretary Lucille Sering.
“We want it done systematically and in a coordinated manner
so we issued an Executive Order specifically for this purpose
since it is really my priority when I assumed office last July,” he
added.
“We then used the flood hazard maps as inputs when we
formulated the flood contingency plan of the city; now, we are
on the implementation phase to capture a best practice workflow for flood-related contingency planning.”
Prior to the actual conduct of the drill, planning and scenario Apart from the drill, actual inputs from the communities who
building workshops were held to familiarize key members of participated in the activity will be collected and incorporated in
Iligan City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Committee the contingency plan.
(ICDRRMC) and local leaders with the different
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Simultaneous early warning, communication
& evacuation drill simulates flooding
in four barangays in Iligan City
I
ligan City aims for “zero casualty”. To do this, a flood contingency
plan adapted to local conditions must be in place to facilitate
organized and coordinated actions during emergencies and in times of
disasters. For the plan to be effective, it must be regularly evaluated and
updated.
One of the most useful tools in evaluating and testing these plans
is the conduct of scenario-based simulation exercises and drills to be
performed both by the LGU and the public.
In Iligan City, the conduct of the simultaneous early warning,
communication and evacuation drill highlights the coordinated response
to flooding across the different levels of government, headed by the
Chairman of the Iligan City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Council, Mayor Celso Regencia, and of over 1,500 volunteers from
the city’s four barangays of Hinaplanon, San Roque, Mahayahay and
Tambacan.
T
he drill scenario included a forecasted tropical storm expected
to cause heavy rainfall and flooding in several areas in the city,
while the river is expected to overflow and leave many residents stranded/
affected. Within minutes when Storm “Zebra” made landfall, severe
weather bulletins from PAGASA were analysed by the DRRMO and local
advisories were issued based on the analysis of the weather information.
The warnings, in the form of ICDRRMC Advisories, were communicated
to the barangays and media, and transmitted on television, radio, social
networking media, and through announcements on the ground by local
disaster risk reduction and management volunteers.
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W
hen the rain continued to pour and the flood waters
started to rise, the ICDRRMC placed the city on Alert and
Monitoring Status. The ICDRRMC Chairman ordered the Warning Task
Unit to continuously monitor rainfall on an hourly basis and watch
closely the river conditions. When the flood level has reached the
“orange” flood marker (Flood Warning Level No. 2), the City Mayor
activated the ICDRRMC and called for an emergency meeting at the
Disaster Operation Center. By this time, Iligan City had been placed
under Preparedness Status and all task units had been required to
preposition their Emergency Response Plans. When flood waters had
reached the critical Red Flood Marker, the ICDRRMC Chairman placed
the entire city under an Evacuation and Response Status through a
signed advisory.
Responders were deployed and evacuation procedure was
instituted in the four barangays.
A
t the indentified schools which were used as evacuation sites
during disasters, the Health, Relief, Security, and Evacuation
Task Units handled the orderly acceptance and registration of evacuees
and distribution of goods. Health officers also checked regularly the
health condition of the evacuees to check for injuries and if there are
urgent concerns including water and sanitation.
Shortly after lunch time, Mayor Celso Regencia ordered the
ICDRRMC through the Communication Task Unit to declare decampment
status.
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C/DRR in practice | Iligan adopts contingency plan
T
estament to Iligan city’s proactive approach in
strengthening its disaster risk reduction program, its
Sangguniang Panglungsod had adopted, on March 27, its new
flood contingency plan.
The flood contingency plan benefitted from a series of
activities which included the intensive trainings and workshops
of the different members of the CDRRM Council during the
formulation of the contingency plan, organizing of clusters
for effective emergency response and establishing data
requirements in defining protocols, and testing of the plan’s
usability through the conduct of the evacuation Flood Drill.
The local government of Iligan through the City Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) worked
with the Climate Change Commission (CCC) on the formulation
of the contingency plan. The activity was carried out in the
framework of the CCC program “Enabling the cities of Cagayan
De Oro and Iligan and the provinces of Compostela Valley
and Davao Oriental to cope with climate change” or Project
Climate Twin Phoenix. CCC is the implementing agency of
Project Climate Twin Phoenix and is supported by the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Australian
Government.
The Iligan city flood contingency plan has been completed
pursuant to Republic Act 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Act of 2010. The plan will be
updated regularly to ensure that it captures experiences and
lessons learned every time it is activated in the future.
Up next, Project Climate Twin Phoenix will assist Iligan
City in evaluating the physical and locational integrity of its
evacuation centers with the help of the Mining and Geosciences
Bureau and the Department of Education. Training on the Camp
Coordination and Management shall also be designed since,
after the drill, this is one of the areas seen that needs to be
improved.
Testimonials
“Having undergone the said drill, the attendees gladly felt
the importance of the drill which they feel the need to practice
annually as a preemptive measure to calamity. Kudos to the
national and local government in initiating the plan”
- Rey G. Obach
Punong Barangay
Barangay Mahayahay, Iligan City
“Kami dako kaayo amung kalipay kay naay pang hitabo
nga drill, kung didto na praktice mi kung naa man gani mga
pang hitabo sama sa Sendong, kron kahibalo nami asa mo
adto , ug unsa buhaton dili na mag panic” (dahil sa drill,
sobrang pasalamat talaga namin kasi kung may pangyayari
man na gaya ng Sendong alam na namin kung ano ang aming
gagawin; hindi na kami mag-pa-panic)
- Barangay San Roque 1-C
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Understanding disaster risks in a changing climate,
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